Week one of the school tour has gone rather well. It's real exhausting though. I have to get up sometime between 6:30 and 7, depending on if I want to fix breakfast or not. We have to be at the schools at 7:30 in order to put up the set and get everything ready for a 9 o'clock show. The show is silly, but hopefully it's entertain and educational. The kids seem to enjoy it, but they tend to get restless after about a half of an hour. It funny to watch the squirming expand from one kid to the entire group. Luckily it's only 45 min long, any longer and their attention spans might completely give out.
After the performance we have to strike the set, put it into the trailer and get ready for the workshops in the classrooms. Each workshop should last about 45 min, but we have consistently gone over time. As any teacher can probably testify the hardest part is getting the kids attention. God bless you guys, I don't know how you do it. Some classes are worse than others.
It seems like they put ALL the kids with ADHD together in one class. Those are the hardest because they don't listen to you. We have an activity where we try to get the kids to get into groups based on a specific category like eye color, favorite animal, type of shoes, etc. The thing is they have to do it without talking. This never works of course. We even ask them ways they can communicate without talking, but most just don't get the concept. And it's amazing after repeating "Do it without talking" like twenty times, some kids continue to resort to talking. Then the kids who actually follow the instructions usually end up standing by themselves.
Then there are other classes who are just the sweetest most polite kids in the world. They pay attention, seem excited to be there, and give good insightful comments. The difference is like night and day. The sad part is those classes are almost predominantly Caucasian.
We then talk about bullying and do some role playing. The kids always want to be the bully. We can't allow them to be though. You can usually tell who the ones that get picked on are, because they are often the quietest. Then all of a sudden you ask them a question and they give you an answer that is way too insightful to be a guess. When asked "Who do bullies pick on" this one little girl tentatively raised her hand and said, "people who are shy and don't talk very much." You could tell she had been picked on. It's sad.
I hope we help the kids in some way though. Some kids bring up valid points that role playing is different from real life. Sometimes I question whether or not the things we teach them would actually work. The most important things I hope the kids get out of the workshops are using empathy for their fellow classmates and standing up for themselves and their classmates.
We usually end the day around 2 pm. We're all beat. It's exhausting trying to keep up with the kids. Bless all you people who do it on a full time basis.
Then sometimes we party. Sometimes cavorting until 2am on a Wed night. As I said before thank god we only have to be role models while in the schools.
Next week we finish up Asheville city schools. The following week we'll be in Union county, near Charlotte, then the next week we do Henderson county schools, and then we'll travel to Greensboro and Durham. I hope I can survive.
After the performance we have to strike the set, put it into the trailer and get ready for the workshops in the classrooms. Each workshop should last about 45 min, but we have consistently gone over time. As any teacher can probably testify the hardest part is getting the kids attention. God bless you guys, I don't know how you do it. Some classes are worse than others.
It seems like they put ALL the kids with ADHD together in one class. Those are the hardest because they don't listen to you. We have an activity where we try to get the kids to get into groups based on a specific category like eye color, favorite animal, type of shoes, etc. The thing is they have to do it without talking. This never works of course. We even ask them ways they can communicate without talking, but most just don't get the concept. And it's amazing after repeating "Do it without talking" like twenty times, some kids continue to resort to talking. Then the kids who actually follow the instructions usually end up standing by themselves.
Then there are other classes who are just the sweetest most polite kids in the world. They pay attention, seem excited to be there, and give good insightful comments. The difference is like night and day. The sad part is those classes are almost predominantly Caucasian.
We then talk about bullying and do some role playing. The kids always want to be the bully. We can't allow them to be though. You can usually tell who the ones that get picked on are, because they are often the quietest. Then all of a sudden you ask them a question and they give you an answer that is way too insightful to be a guess. When asked "Who do bullies pick on" this one little girl tentatively raised her hand and said, "people who are shy and don't talk very much." You could tell she had been picked on. It's sad.
I hope we help the kids in some way though. Some kids bring up valid points that role playing is different from real life. Sometimes I question whether or not the things we teach them would actually work. The most important things I hope the kids get out of the workshops are using empathy for their fellow classmates and standing up for themselves and their classmates.
We usually end the day around 2 pm. We're all beat. It's exhausting trying to keep up with the kids. Bless all you people who do it on a full time basis.
Then sometimes we party. Sometimes cavorting until 2am on a Wed night. As I said before thank god we only have to be role models while in the schools.
Next week we finish up Asheville city schools. The following week we'll be in Union county, near Charlotte, then the next week we do Henderson county schools, and then we'll travel to Greensboro and Durham. I hope I can survive.
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not-tom's page is awesome. I think I might have to steal it.
So, what about this week... My time is drawing near...